Improvement in putting up sewing-silk for sale and use



UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

' CHARLES o. KNOWLTON, or BROOKLYN, nnw'vonn.

.-IMPROVEM'E NT m PUTTING'UP sE'wmG-sd FORSVALE AND use.

Specification forming part of LettersPatent No. 173.125, dated February 8, 1876 application filed December 27, 1875. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES C. KNOWL- TON, of Brooklyn, in'the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Putting up Sewing- Silk for be tangled, thus involving no little trouble to the dealer, and frequently to the purchaser.

After the skein is opened out and cut into proper length to be used, the silk-is still quite liable to be tangled by further handling, and by withdrawing a thread for use, involving a serious tax on the time and patience of the user.

My invention is designed to obviate these difliculties, and to furnish the silk in a condition in which it can be handled with facility by both the dealer and the user without danger of tangling, and in which it is otherwise more convenient for sale and use.

Said inventionconsists in putting up sewlug-silk in skeins or hanks formed of coils or plies of braid, which is itself formed of a number of sewing-threads,substantially as hereinafter more fully set forth.

After the silk has been manufactured into threads of the proper size for the sewing-silk required, I first braid a number of the threads into a long continuous braid, sufficiently loose that when a braid is cut into proper lengths to constitute needlefuls of silk for the common sewing-needle, a needleful may be drawn from the braid with ease and facility. The exact number of'threa'ds in each braid is not essential, but usually somewhere from eight or ten to twenty will be found most convenient. The silk may be thus braided into continuous braids by' any suitable braidjug-machine.

The continuous braid being thus formed, I then reel it into skeins of suitable or convenient size, about an ounce of silk in each skein being preferred"; and I prefer also to use a reel of a circumference equal to the I length of a proper needleful of silk, say about thirty-six inches, so that when the skein is out once, the silk shall be in proper needleful lengths.

Thelrequ-ired quantity of the braid having been thus reeled, I then tie a string or thread around the skein, and detach thatportion of A the braid not included in the skein, and the skein is formed. a

' To facilitate the removal by the dealer of the quantity of silk required by thepurchaser, and to further prepare it for convenient use, I prefer to cut the skein thus formed atthe opposite end fromthat occupied by the string or band above mentioned,'so' that when put up for sale the silk shall be in needleful' lengths, which enables the dealer, without any measuring or cutting, to at once draw out from the bank the number of braids necessary to makeup the amount of silk required by the purchaser; and the silk, when so "delivered to. the purchaser, will be. in convenient and proper lengths for use, and in. braids of suitable size for convenient use, from which braids separate threads can be readily drawn Without tangling.

After the silk is formed into skeins and out as above described, I prefer for the convenience of packing it for the market, to fold or double it upon itself at the band, and then redouble it so as to form a parcel or hank one-fourth of the length of the braids so cut into needlefuls, and then to secure it in this shape by tying threads around the ends and generally around the. middleof the bunch,

-'when it is ready to be :wrapped in papersor put in boxes for sale.

I claim as myinvention- 1. The method of putting up sewing-silk, substantially as herein described, which consists in braiding the threads and then reeling said braids into a skein or hank, essentially as set'forth;

2. A skein or hank'of sewing-silk or thread, formed of a number of plies ofa braid or braids of threads, whether cut into lengths or continuous, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

' CHARLES o. KNoWLToN.

Witnessesz.

Tnos. P. How, EDWIN M. DONNELLY. 

